Michael De Santa
Michael De Santa, formerly Michael Townley, is one of the three main protagonists in Grand Theft Auto V, along with Franklin Clinton and Trevor Philips. Michael's story centers around how his seemingly idyllic and halcyon lifestyle is brought to a halt as his past demons and morally compromising mistakes come back to haunt him. All the while his midlife crisis pushes him to his ultimate snapping point. Involvement Grand Theft Auto V Prologue At some point in 2004, Michael met FIB agent Dave Norton. Mike made a deal with the FIB to surrender Trevor & Brad Snider in exchange for protection, in addition, for a cut of his accumulated millions and letting Norton "kill" him in the upcoming bank heist in Ludendorff, North Yankton - a move that would make Norton's career as the agent who took down the supposed "Most Wanted Man in America". The staged robbery, however, turned out to be a disaster after Trevor murdered a guard who held Michael at gunpoint and when Michael, Brad and Trevor were ambushed by over a dozen police officers ready to arrest or kill them. During the getaway, their driver was killed by pursuing police; Michael took the wheel and drove the crew to the ambush spot he and Norton had agreed on, where he claimed there was an escape chopper waiting. However, things yet again deviated from their plan when Brad was accidentally shot by Norton (later succumbing to his wounds) after he walked in front of Trevor. Michael took the second bullet as planned - although the lack of a visible wound or blood loss implies that Dave intentionally missed him, or he was wearing a bullet proof vest and acted as if he believed the wound was fatal, imploring Trevor to leave him behind. Enraged beyond sense, Trevor proceeded to massacre numerous police officers before barely escaping the ambush (to Michael's chagrin) with his life. After the incident, Michael Townley was pronounced dead, but in reality it was Brad who was buried in Micheal's place. True to his word, Dave arranged for Michael to receive a comfortable stipend and a relocation to a large Los Santos mansion in Rockford Hills, where he and his family lived under the surname "De Santa" (a longtime alias of Michael's); thus, Michael received an off-the-books way to safely retire from his former criminal life and spend time with his wife and kids in exchange for a monthly five-figure "hush money" payment to Norton in exchange for his silence. Events of GTA V Nine years have passed since Michael's false death and after another therapy session with Dr. Friedlander, Michael has a chance encounter with a Los Santos youth named Franklin Clinton, whom he unknowingly directs to Franklin's repossession assignment along with his friend Lamar Davis. A short time later his son Jimmy De Santa buys an SUV from Simeon Yetarian, an Armenian car salesman who sells the car to him at an unaffordable price of $5,000 in monthly installments. After being late on the first payment, Simeon gets his repossession man, the same Franklin Clinton, to "repossess" the SUV from the De Santa home. However, Michael spots Franklin sneaking in and hides in a rolled up rug in the backseat of the car prior to Franklin stealing it. Michael reveals himself and holds Franklin at gunpoint, ordering him to go to Yetarian's shop and drive the SUV through the store's window. Afterwards, Michael pays Franklin to leave and beats Yetarian into submission, threatening more violence if he pulls another of his sales tactics on him or his family again. At home, Michael attempts to relax by his pool, only to be interrupted by Franklin, who takes up his earlier offering of a drink. Surprised that Franklin actually took it to heart, Michael decides to take him out drinking. Unfortunately, Jimmy calls that instant and reveals he has tried to sell Michael's boat, ending with the "buyers" hijacking the yacht themselves. Enraged, Michael along with Franklin drives after the boat and saves Jimmy, but is unable to rescue the yacht. Michael becomes angry at Jimmy but becomes fond of Franklin after his impressive efforts, whom he tells to visit him any time. After the fiasco with the boat, Michael discovers Amanda De Santa sleeping with her tennis coach, leading him and a recently arrived Franklin to give chase. Furious beyond reasonable thought, Michael chases the coach to an exotic house on the side of the Vinewood Hills. Michael then orders Franklin to hook their truck's winch onto the supports of the house and he pulls them loose, causing the house to collapse, much to Franklin's shock and Michael's joy. However, it turns out that the house did not belong to the coach, but the girlfriend of a powerful Mexican cartel leader named Martin Madrazo, who sends his men after Michael and Franklin. The two manage to fend them off, but Madrazo arrives at the De Santa residence. He orders a henchman to hit Michael with a bat before demanding that Michael pay for the damages in an installment of two million dollars - money that Michael does not have. With no other choice, Michael decides to return to bank robbing and contacts his old partner Lester Crest. Lester agrees to help Michael get the money if the latter agrees to sabotage founder of Lifeinvader, Jay Norris' phone. Michael does so and causes Norris' death when he calls the entrepreneur's sabotaged phone, causing it to explode and kill him instantly. After collecting information about the Vangelico Jewelry Store and its gems, Michael and Lester set up a heist, with Michael insisting that Franklin be a part, claiming that the experience will be something that he'll look forward to even with his stiff payment. The heist goes smoothly, and Madrazo is paid. Unfortunately for Michael, the job is reported on the news, which Trevor sees on his TV. Trevor recognizes Michael's modus operandi from the report and goes partially berserk, taking out most of his rivals in Sandy Shores and making his way to Los Santos to confront the "ghost" of his former partner and friend. After several weeks of laying low, Michael finds marijuana in the fridge, and correctly assumes it is Jimmy's. This creates an angry argument among the family until Trevor abruptly arrives, much to everyone's shock and horror. Thankfully, the tension is broken by Jimmy revealing that Tracey De Santa has gone to audition for Fame or Shame. Realizing that Tracey will embarrass herself in front of the nation due to her horrible dancing, Michael and Trevor rush to the Maze Bank Arena. The two find Tracey doing a stripper-like dance and the show's host Lazlow Jones beginning to do a sexual pose behind her, enraging both Michael and Trevor. The two give chase to a fleeing Lazlow in his red Dilettante to the Los Santos Canal. Trevor forces Lazlow to take off his pants and dance for them as he records it on his phone. In the aftermath, Tracey angrily blames her father for ruining her life, which doesn't seem to bother him. Soon after, Michael agrees to meet Dave at the Galileo Observatory. When they get to the meeting point, Dave explains that Michael's decision to rob the Vangelico Jewelry Store has cause superfluous attention from the FIB for Dave and if the the Bureau was to come across his files that contain information about the deal that both men made ten years ago, this would create a serious situation that neither one of them can escape from. Michael proceeds to do tasks for Dave in order to help keep his career within the FIB, in exchange for covering up the crimes that Michael commits. Michael's first mission is to confirm the death of a suspect in a morgue. To do this, Norton knocks Michael out and delivers him as a corpse to the morgue. Michael wakes in the middle of the autopsy and then finds out that the suspect isn't dead by finding his name tag on a woman's corpse. Michael escapes the morgue by killing the guards. In a panic, Michael calls Franklin and accidentally reveals that he is affiliated with the FIB, though Franklin continues to trust Michael due to the latter offering him help while he was in a tough financial position. Franklin also decides to work with Michael, in hopes that there will be better payment from jobs with him. Michael continues to work for Norton. Steve Haines, a higly decorated but also highly corrupt FIB agent and Norton's superior, contacts him and makes him team up with Franklin and Trevor to extract a prisoner of the IAA, dubbed Mr. K, out of the IAA building and into the hands of the FIB. Later, Michael and Trevor are summoned to a remote warehouse where Michael is briefed that he will accompany Norton to assassinate an Azebaijani terrorist suspect Tahir Javan whilst Trevor and Haines torture Mr. K for information on him. The mission is successful, and Michael refuses to know any more details of the mission. When Michael returns home, he finds his wife with her yoga instructor Fabien LaRouche, who asks Michael to join them. After a few poses, Fabien begins doing a "pose" on Amanda, causing Michael to get angry and attack Fabien, who dodges him and makes him fall into the pool. Angered by her husband's attitude, Amanda leaves with Fabien. Michael goes upstairs and tries to do something with Jimmy, who asks him to go with him to get a package from a friend. They meet the friend at Burger Shot and he gives Jimmy some pot and a drink. On the way home, Michael drinks from Jimmy's drink and begins to feel strange. Jimmy reveals that he drugged the drink and then pushes Michael out of the car and reveals he is moving out and he is going to keep the car. Michael begins having strange dreams and wakes up in his underwear a few blocks away from his home. When he gets to the house, he finds a note from Amanda saying that his family has left due to Michael's poor behaviour. Later, Trevor contacts Michael and Franklin to partake in his own heist; the mercenary group Merryweather and its unknown cargo at the docks. The heist goes as planned and Trevor finds a super-weapon that Lester reveals is highly dangerous, especially in the hands of someone like Trevor and tells him that he must return it. Michael and Franklin agree, and Trevor is furious that he cannot keep the loot. After the Merryweather heist, Michael, along with Franklin and Trevor are called upon by Haines and Norton. This time they must rob an armored truck filled with funds that the IAA has received due to drug sales. Haines wants those funds to help support the Bureau. After some short prep time, the heist is executed with some mild resistance. Michael then proceeds to deliver the funds to billionaire Devin Weston, who offers Michael a partnership with his movie idol who happens to be movie producer Solomon Richards. However, he has to steal several rare cars for Weston with Trevor and Franklin. Offered his dream job, Michael eagerly agrees and delivers the cars to Weston. Michael is thrilled to finally meet Richards, who hires him as an assistant. His first job is to convince Ancelotti crime family made man Rocco Pelosi to obey Solomon's wishes for how the actors should behave during the production of Solomon's latest motion picture Meltdown. This gets Michael on Richard's good side and is promised the role of producer for the upcoming film if Michael continues his good work. Martin Madrazo later summons Michael and Trevor to his home. Madrazo, who now views Michael as a friend, requests that he and Trevor shoot down his cousin's airliner, which is carrying some sensitive files Madrazo wants back. Michael does his part by bringing it down with a weapon inside a van, while Trevor manages to kill Javier and takes the incriminating files. After destroying the van, Michael finds out to his horror that due to them being used by Martin to do his dirty bidding while getting stiffed from payment, Trevor has kidnapped Madrazo's wife Patricia Madrazo. Knowing full and well what Madrazo might do to them if he catches them, Michael agrees to hide out in Sandy Shores with Trevor. While exiled in Sandy Shores, Haines and Norton summon the trio for another mission against the IAA. This time, the two agents plot to raid an IAA chemical plant to steal a dangerous neurotoxin that the agency is plotting to use in a simulated terrorist attack, with the sole purpose of receiving more funds from the US government. To carry out this operation, the trio must first secure enough funds to purchase a Cargobob and other assorted equipment that the FIB can't assign them. Ultimately, the crew settles upon robbing the Paleto Bay bank, as it contains millions of dollars deposited there by Blaine County's corrupt law enforcement who extort money from all the local weed farms and meth labs. After planning the robbery, Michael and Trevor meet at Trevor's trailer, where they have a short conversation and drink beer. They then leave the trailer and during the way, Trevor receives a call from Franklin, who upon Trevor's request is tailing the remaining O'Neil brothers - inbred, redneck meth dealers, who are vengeful because of Trevor's earlier attack of the O'Neil household, resulting in the deaths of most of the O'Neils and the explosion of their farm. Franklin chases the O'Neils, who crash because of an elk on the road and escape in a forest, located somewhere in the Raton Canyon. Franklin then calls Trevor for air support and eventually, Trevor and Michael come with a helicopter, used in the extraction of Ferdinand Kerimov, out of the IAA building. Using a rifle, fitted with a thermal scope, Michael shoots Walton and Wynn O'Neil dead, but can't get a clear image of O'Neil gang leader Elwood O'Neil, who is hiding behind a rock and firing anti-tank rockets towards the helicopter. With the help of Chop, Franklin locates and kills Elwood, after which he and Chop are picked up by the helicopter and safely return back to Sandy Shores. Using stolen military body armour and machine guns, Trevor, Michael, Franklin and one gunman successfully rob the Paleto bank, taking a small cut each and giving the largest profit to Haines and Norton so they can purchase the equipment for the chemical plant robbery, much to the team's irritation. While awaiting this operation, Michael and Trevor carry out another job, raiding a Merryweather courier train that carries gold and priceless artifacts so that they can pay off Martin Madrazo. Trevor derails the train over a bridge and Michael dives into the river below to retrieve the merchandise, taking an ancient Aztec fertility statuette that Madrazo would value. Trevor is greatly dissatisfied with Michael's choice of take, but he calms down once Michael proposes that, once they get the FIB off their cases, they should carry out "the Big Score" - robbing the Union Depository. After returning to Los Santos, Michael receives an unexpected visit from Trevor in his mansion, who pitches him the plan of busting Brad out of jail. Michael's reluctance to go ahead with the plan leads to a debate, during which Trevor finally realizes that Brad is in fact dead and buried at Michael's grave in North Yankton. He hastily travels back there with Michael in pursuit. After a stand off at his (Brad's) grave, they are attacked by Wei Cheng's henchmen, who incorrectly assumed that Michael and Trevor are lovers and had been surveilling them ever since their exile to Sandy Shores. Trevor flees, leaving Michael to fend off the henchmen himself. Although he manages to kill most of Cheng's henchmen, Michael is captured when he tries to escape in his car which Trevor sabotaged. After being tortured by Cheng at a meat processing factory back in Los Santos, he is rescued by Franklin. Michael revisits the movie studio to resume working with his idol Solomon Richards. After witnessing Rocco Pelosi and his associate Gianni assault Solomon, Michael chases the two and ends up killing both of them. In return, Solomon keeps to his word and makes Michael a credited producer in his upcoming film, much to Michael's overwhelming joy. He leaves a voicemail message on Amanda's phone to try to convince her that he is finally doing something good with his life. Michael and Franklin are called up once again by Haines for one more job: to break into the FIB building and remove incriminating evidence against Haines. This goes according to plan, but when Michael meets Haines and Norton at the Kortz Center, Haines attempts to arrest him to cover his involvement in the raid. However, this turns into a Mexican standoff between Andreas Sanchez who is revealed to be working with a rival FIB team (who want to arrest the trio because of the raid), a IAA team led by the U.L. Paper Contact (because of the FIB's constant sabotages) and a Merryweather team (for Michael's involvement in their troubles), Michael, Dave and Steve. The situation quickly goes out of control as Haines is shot in the leg by a FIB operative but manages to escape, killing Sanchez in the process. Dave and Michael manage to fight their way through the Merryweather mercenaries, FIB and IAA agents (Michael has the option to kill the U.L. Paper contact) and escape with the help of Trevor, who removes his vow of killing Michael and wants him in for "the Big Score". Having had enough of being alone, Michael finally seeks out and reunites with his family. With this and his involvement in Solomon Richard's upcoming film, things were starting to look up, all until Devon Weston announces his intentions to exploit the movie studio's insurance policy by hiding the completed film from the world so he would claim the insurance money, ultimately closing and destroying the studio and building condos on the site. Infuriated upon learning of Weston's intentions, Michael chases the former's assistant to the airport to try and retrieve the film's master copy. During the chase, she is accidentally sucked into a jet engine. Michael retrieves the film, and Solomon arranges a premiere so that it cannot be tampered with any further. At the premiere, Weston unexpectedly shows up and cryptically threatens Michael with Amanda and Tracey's lives because of his interference. After Michael rushes home with Jimmy, he kills the intruders (revealed to be Merryweather mercenaries), sends his family into hiding and notifies Lester that they pull off the Big Score now. Fate Ending A Whilst chasing Trevor around the Murrieta Oilfields, Franklin calls Michael for help. He arrives in a stolen Premier and t-bones into Trevor, causing the latter to crash into a gas tanker, covering him in gasoline. Franklin shoots the gas to incinerate Trevor before the tanker explodes. Michael and Franklin reflect on how crazy Trevor was and it was this constant craziness which led to his demise. Shortly after, they split up before Franklin sarcastically remarks the event as an "illuminating experience", which Michael counters by telling him to survive. Ending B Michael meets Franklin in the desert and reflects on their partnership. However, in Franklin's reply, he notices Franklin's intention to kill him and escapes, eventually ending up at the Palmer-Taylor Power Station. They continue to chase up on one of the chimney walkways and after a minor scuffle, Franklin pushes Michael over the rail, leaving him hanging precariously. Franklin can choose to drop him or have second thoughts and attempt to save him, but with either choice, Michael falls to his death. Ending C Michael helps Franklin and Trevor fight off Merryweather and the corrupt FIB agents at the foundry, then has Trevor and Franklin kill Steve Haines and Wei Cheng, while he kills Stretch, to not implicate Franklin from its effects. Afterwards, he meets Franklin and Trevor, the latter having kidnapped Weston and put him in the trunk of his car, at the foothills of Mount Chiliad. After taunting Weston on their apparent victory, the trio pushes the car off the cliff and into the ocean, killing Weston. Making amends with Trevor, Michael reflects that he is getting too old to continue a life of crime, and drives home with Franklin, agreeing to end his partnership with Franklin and Trevor, but remaining friends with them. Allies *Dave Norton *Franklin Clinton (Determinant) *Trevor Phillips (Determinant) *Lester Crest *Martin Madrazo *Solomon Richards *Chop *Brad Snider *Patricia Madrazo Enemies *Simeon Yetarian *Stretch *Steve Haines *Wei Cheng *Elwood O'Neil *Franklin Clinton (Determinant) *Trevor Phillips (Determinant) *Kyle Chavis *Lazlow Jones *Fabien LaRouche *Devin Weston *Rocco Pelosi *Javier Madrazo *Gianni *Molly Schultz Appearances *Grand Theft Auto V Category:GTA V Category:GTA Category:Male Category:Humans Category:Criminal Category:Protagonist Category:Robbers Category:Film Category:Determinant